Two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters, the author of the forthcoming "Broadway Barks" book, performs at Prelude to a Dance April 23 at the Hudson Theatre in Manhattan.

Tony winner Bernadette Peters.

The evening, which kicks off the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company's 40th anniversary, also features performances by American Ballet Theatre principal dancers Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes. Attendees can expect to see a sneak preview of a new Lubovitch work-in-progress and the duet from Lubovitch's "Meadow," danced by Kent and Gomes.

Prelude to a Dance begins at 6 PM with a reception, followed by the 7 PM performance and a post-performance supper.

The company's 40th anniversary season will also include a week-long season at City Center (Nov. 5-9); a five-night retrospective at Dance Theater Workshop (Sept. 30-Oct. 4) featuring pioneering Lubovitch works from the 1970s; and a 22-city national tour running from July 2008-February 2009.

Bernadette Peters was last on Broadway in the acclaimed revival of Gypsy, for which she received a 2003 Tony Award nomination for her performance as Rose in the Sam Mendes-directed production. She won her two Tonys for her performances in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song & Dance and Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, and she has also starred on Broadway in Mack & Mabel, On the Town, Sunday in the Park with George, The Goodbye Girl and the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Peters' newest live recording, "Sondheim, Etc., Etc.—Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall (The Rest of It)," is available on the Angel Records label. Masterworks Broadway has also released a "Legends of Broadway" CD celebrating her theatrical career. Peters' screen credits are numerous. Peters — with illustrator Liz Murphy — has penned "Broadway Barks," which will be shipped by Amazon.com April 28 on the Blue Apple Books label. The book also includes a CD featuring a reading of the story and an original tune written and performed by two-time Tony winner Peters. Proceeds from the book benefit the Broadway Barks charity.

Lubovitch first worked with Peters when he made his Broadway debut choreographing the original production of Into the Woods. The Hudson Theatre is located within the Millennium Broadway Hotel at 145 West 44th Street. Tickets, priced $75-$150 (show only) and $500 and up (reception, show and supper), are available by calling (212) 221-7909 or by e-mailing development@lubovitch.org.